


Scared as a Mouse

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Light as a Feather (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 13:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20657840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: For the 100fandoms prompt #45: game. As Jennie takes over McKenna's body, forcing her to the Other Side, Alex realises what Violet's prediction really meant. She can only think of one way to stop Jennie and get McKenna back: by playing the game again.





	Scared as a Mouse

_McKenna and Jennie Brady shared everything.  
A birthday, a face, and even a soul.  
They also shared a heart defect, a condition that claimed one sister's life and left the other behind.  
McKenna tried to get over the tragedy, but something was holding her back.  
With her soul on the other side, half of her living and half of her dead, McKenna was always walking a line.  
Always on the verge of death, always fighting to stay alive.  
And then one day, McKenna lost her balance and fell into the darkness.  
McKenna Brady could no longer live without her sister, Jennie.  
She was so drawn to her in the darkness, she followed her there.  
\- She wanted to be with Jennie so bad, she stayed with her.  
With her soul on the other side, soon McKenna's body would cease to function.  
Normally, a comatose body could take years to shut down, but because of McKenna's faulty heart, she only had minutes.  
And then there was only one thing left to do, to put her body out of its misery, - snuff it out.  
To finally draw that last bit of oxygen from her lungs._

That had been the death Violet had thought she foresaw for McKenna the second time they played Light as a Feather.

Now, she and Alex are starting to realise she may not have had it quite right.

Sammi’s luck runs out a few days after their attempt at playing the game in that abandoned factory. Finishing her shift at the convenience store, she’s half way to her car before she realises she left her phone in there. Thinking she’s safe, that their last attempt at playing the game worked, she doesn’t think anything of it as she turns to go back for it.

She doesn’t think anything of it until she feels herself being shoved into that same walk in freezer she’d been shut in before, hears the door slam shut behind her with a click.

Trey doesn’t question the text he receives from Sammi’s phone that night saying she’s tired after a long shift, she’s going to crash but she’ll call him in the morning. She’s texted him that way before and nothing’s been wrong. He only realises something’s happened when he calls her the next day, one of her coworkers answers the phone and says she just found it abandoned on the counter and doesn’t know where Sammi is.

He arrives there too late; Sammi’s co-worker has found her in the walk-in freezer, has called 911, and Trey arrives to find the paramedics wheeling her out of the store in a body bag, as a crowd gathers, some asshole is even filming the whole thing…and McKenna, standing staring at him. No, Jennie, he corrects himself, Jennie possessing McKenna again, Jennie is the one who has done this.

“McKenna was never going to do it,” Jennie says in his ear. “She was just going to stand there and let Sammi steal her man. I had to do it for her.”

Trey knows McKenna needs more watching than ever, can’t be left alone in case Jennie takes over again. But he can’t do that himself right now, can’t even look at McKenna without seeing Jennie, can’t trust himself if Jennie does break through again. He looks at her and he sees Sammi, thinks of those last few moments of her life, and he can’t be around the person who was responsible for ending it.

Alex takes over watching her, with Peri by her side as backup in case she’s needed. They take turns sleeping, one of them always keeping watch over McKenna to make sure she doesn’t go anywhere. When morning comes, and McKenna appears to have slept through the night, they initially think the night has been a success.

Peri fixes them pancakes for breakfast, they chat about neutral things such as TV shows, trying to pretend like everything’s normal while tiptoeing around the elephant in the room. Alex looks at her, trying to keep both of their spirits up, and she feels so lucky that Peri has even stuck around for this crazy, and yet guilty that she has dragged Peri into the game, that even now Peri is at risk of the death McKenna, or Jennie, predicted for her coming to pass, and if it happens, Alex knows that would be on her.

As Alex laughs at some joke Peri makes, a piece of her pancake becomes lodged in her throat. As she struggles to breathe, as Peri immediately rushes over and starts performing the Heimlich manoeuvre, Alex is aware the whole time of McKenna sat watching her, not doing anything to help, just sat there with a small smile on her face.

That’s not McKenna, she thinks. It’s Jennie. But it’s not Jennie as Alex knew her. This is something else.

Alex would never have done this if she had thought there was any other way. But there was only one person who had any knowledge at all about the curse, might know some other way of dealing with it, and after the lack of success after going down Margaret’s route, she may be the only person who Alex can turn to.

“Violet,” she begins, “I think we may need your help.”

She explains what happened that morning, when Jennie had watched and smiled as Alex was choking. “It was Jennie, but not the same Jennie I knew, if that makes sense.”

“The curse changes people,” Violet explains. “Some of the things I did, like outing Candace and Isaac’s affair to the whole school so people would vote for me as president instead, they were things I would never have done before the curse took hold of me. So it’s likely that it would have changed Jennie too.”

“It was like she wanted me to choke,” Alex continues. “It felt like…she hated me for still being alive when she wasn’t. Maybe she blames me, for giving her those pills in the first place even though she asked for them. And she blames McKenna, for still being alive, for that whole prank on Olivia that meant Jennie had to rewrite her paper in the first place. Never mind that,” she continues, noticing Violet’s blank look. “But next time, it could be Peri, and I caused it.”

“Or it could be Isaac,” Violet continues. “I’ve been trying to call him over and over again since he went to his grandmother’s, but he would never pick up. Eventually his grandmother answered and told me to stop calling him. But even though he was saying he didn’t want to talk to me, I was relieved, because he’s still here to be able to tell her to say that.”

“I just keep thinking, if I hadn’t interrupted you when I did, maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” Alex says. “I think maybe me doing that left a door open, one that Jennie’s been able to come through, to take over McKenna’s body, to get her chance to live on this side again, to force McKenna on to the other side. And now I need to fix it, to give McKenna a chance to send her back. Maybe she’ll take the curse with her this time. You were on the right track with your prediction, Violet, you just didn’t have it quite the right way round. McKenna’s going to end up on the other side, but Jennie’s going to take over her body here. And I think there’s only one thing we can do to stop her, to send Jennie back over there, and hopefully even send the curse back over there with Jennie, like we originally planned to do. Believe me, I wouldn’t be suggesting this to you if I thought there was any other way.”

Violet stares at Alex. “You’re suggesting that we play the game one more time?” 

Even as Alex and Peri follow Violet into the funeral home where they had played before in an attempt to transfer the curse to Jennie, as Peri squeezes her hand and tells her she’s doing the right thing, Alex can’t quite believe she’s doing this again. She sees the look on Trey’s face, knowing the last thing he wants to do is to be there right now, but he’s doing it anyway so that they can all be finally free of the curse once and for all, and Alex wants to cry for him, for Sammi, for Olivia and Candace, and even for Jennie, for the friendship they once shared. She feels almost as if she’s watching the whole thing from outside of her body as they all take up their positions, as Violet commences her story.

_Jennie Brady was a typical fifteen year old girl who loved her life. Happy with her friends, with her identical twin, she was optimistic about her future. She knew about her congenital heart defect, but was always determined not to let it get her down._

_And then one day, the life she loved so much was snatched away from her. Attempting to write her own paper as well as one for McKenna as a result of her practical joke backfiring, Jennie decided to achieve this by asking a friend for some pills, which, because of her faulty heart, were fatal to her. _

If this all goes right, she never has to worry about choking again; Peri and Isaac will be safe; McKenna will be back. It’s what they have to do, she continues to tell herself as Violet continues her story.

_After two years, McKenna reached out to Jennie, in an attempt to rid herself of the curse, to try and transfer it to her on the other side. And it should have worked. But when Alex interrupted the process, no one realised at the time, but she left the door open for Jennie to maintain a foothold over here. _

_The curse was changing her from the Jennie who McKenna, Alex and Trey had known and loved. This Jennie was determined to take over McKenna’s life, to regain the life she felt had been taken from her. She became angry at McKenna for forcing the cure upon her; at Alex for giving her the pills. She sought her revenge through the game. Yet McKenna was stronger than the curse had bargained for; she wasn’t willing to give up on her life quite yet. _

Alex can’t look at Peri as Violet recites the whole story of their past, hates herself all over again for everything she’s done, wants to turn and run right out the door, and then Peri squeezes her hand, and she knows she has to continue. You can do it, McKenna, Alex thinks, feeling sure in her heart that McKenna is fighting it, is trying to make her way back to this side, and Alex even thinks she can feel the presence of Olivia and Candace, encouraging McKenna to fight.

_ McKenna managed to force her way through, back to take over her body full time, and Jennie was forced back to the other side._

_Light as a feather, stiff as a board._

_Light as a feather, stiff as a board._

_Light as a feather, stiff as a board._

_She’s dying._

_She’s dying._

_She’s dead. _


End file.
